Week In The Life 2013 | Thursday Words + Photos
NUMBER OF PHOTOS FOR THURSDAY | 20
As usual, as the week progresses I tend to take less photos. I've come to recognize it simply as part of the process.
The rest of my week will be documenting what my life's like when my kids aren't here in the house with me. It's part of the reality of my story.
Over time it's gotten easier (and I often welcome the break) but I'm still learning to really embrace the time to reconnect with myself. I miss them when they aren't here but I'm thankful that they get to spend time with their Dad who loves them so very much.
It's different, as many of you know, to document your life without kids as leading characters in the story. There's no better or worse, it's just different and to be honest I think it's more challenging. For me it means I need to switch gears - there's not a moving target I can always point my lens at and it can feel very repetitive.
But rather than looking at it as repetitive or boring or not how I want it to be or not enough, I'm looking at it knowing that I need to capture it as it is for what it is right now. How can I represent this piece of my life visually? What can I take photos of that I miss because I'm focusing on capturing my kids? How do I fill my time? What other things have become important?
Here's a look at my Thursday:
SHARE YOUR THURSDAY
I'd love to have you include a link to your THURSDAY of words and photos here. Please link directly to your post vs. your general blog link. Thank you!
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I did take less photos today too! Thanks Ali! This is wonderful!
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Thank you for the honest look of your day and thoughts while the kids are away. It is hard to capture the day/week without having the them around, that is what we focus on. I have this same feeling of what can I capture all day while they are school and I'm home doing the same routine things each day. I think there will be a nice balance when it's all done.
Great pictures for your day, the chili sounds perfect for us today, a cool day after a big heat wave.
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I imagine the kids would like to see (either now or in a few years) the things you do when they aren't there. Love what's in the blender! And thanks for making me feel better about less photos as the week progresses.
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One advantage of the children being else where is a social life! My social life this week has consisted of 90 minutes at the school's Meet and Greet ~ my husband stayed at home with our son.
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I love that you mentioned how challenging capturing life as a 'single' person can be... I too, sometimes feel like my photos are pretty repeatative... and often I find myself slipping into a bit of an 'oh poor me - I don't have kids' frame of mind (usually I can snap out of it pretty fast, but it's the truth). Anyway - I would love to hear more of your thoughts about capturing life as "me" instead of "we". I love that you're making products that include a "me/my/I" option - and I'd love to hear more of your thoughts about capturing life sans little ones. Thank you so much - you're such an inspiration!
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Well that is my life everyday. I don't have kids and my husband is away a lot. I take a lot of pictures of my dog... :-)
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really loving this experience and the community.
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Thanks Ali, this WITL project actually got me to take more photo's of other areas of my life, iso being mostly focussed on the kids. There's defnitely times when I'm more switched off to photo's, mostly in the mornings when they're at school. Still good photo moments and life stories happening then.
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This is my dilemma too as I am now divorced and the kids have flown the nest. Started the week pretty good since there was some stuff going on, but the I still have trouble dealing with the mundane feel of everyday life and taking pictures of it just makes me slip into "poor me" again. Still difficult dealing with being a family of 1 instead of a family of 5.
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Less photos for me as well. I love the photo of the newspaper through the doorway. My Thursday can be found here: http://www.beautifulcrazylife4.blogspot.com/2013/09/week-in-life-thursday-words-photos.html
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I've been thinking about this too. My son is away at college and it's been a hard change for me to adjust to. But this is life. This is my now and in a few years it will change again so it is important to me to remember this time. I'm doing WITL next week so that I can capture Parent Weekend at his college. Here is a list I came up with maybe it will spark other ideas for you. mailbox and what came in the mail each day
each room of the house, as is
meals in and out, grocery receipts, restaurant receipts
treats eaten
TV shows watched
books read
writing in journals and where we do it
trash day
recycle day
the library and parking lot
the lawn guy and the yard
the clock that chimes the hour
the inside of my purse
walking around the block
the gym
my earrings each day
feeding pets
the farmer’s market
washing dishes
what am I working on
what do I do when I take a break (Baggo, blog reading, laundry, snack, walk)
what does my camera look like
what kind of computers am I using (how much memory!)
what I’m thinking as I fall asleep and wakeup (the list I spend too much time reviewing in my head)
J’s schedule of classes
the drive to W-burg (where was traffic, how long)
Parent Weekend
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My situation is a little bit different than you but in essence the same. My girls are in their late teens (celebrated 19 with my daughter last night) and just are not around as much. I am finding any sort of daily documenting to be a challenge for the same reasons that you mentioned. Without kids to photograph what is the story? And on top of that I am at work all day and there are only so many shots you can take of the inside of an office! Even keeping up with Project Life is a challenge now without the 'life' that my girls would bring to my day. ANd yet, as you are suggesting, it is causing me to rethink my own personal story after everything being about my girls for so many years. Who am I? What are my patterns? What is my relationship with my husband now without our girls at the forefront of our lives? What do we like to do now? I am being forced to find my story in the way the lighting comes through my blinds in the morning, or Mr. Jack Rabbit who frequents our backyard. I am now noticing these stories that were peripheral for so long. It just requires a retrained set of eyes. But the stories are just as important.
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I love this project--and I am so grateful you are reminding me it's ok to slow down on photo taking as the week progresses. It makes it possible to keeping going and not give up entirely!
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Its so real though Ali! Thanks for sharing. I'm sure this is inspiring for people without kids as well.
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Thanks Ali, for guiding us through this neat experience. What amazes me the most is how some days I don't know what to take photos of for what seem uneventful hours, but later I ask myself, "Why didn't a take a photo of...?" This is really a great exercise in awareness of our everyday lives and capturing them visually. (there will also be plenty that can only be captured in words, love that we can combine both!)
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I too have not taken as many photos as the first couple days, but I intentionally took and will take "extras' pics that can fit into other days throughout the week and fill in as needed. For instance, dishes (clean and dirty), my home office, the garden/my yard, the sunset/sunrise, toys scattered around, diff rooms in my house, what's on the screen (tv, computer, iPad, etc), the inside of the fridge, etc. There's no rules and no ones's checking the date on my images to make sure they match up! If I missed something, I'll catch the next day or next week and slip it in! All is good.
Ali, thank you for all or who you are and all you share :)
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what a gift you are giving your children - seeing their mom accept herself as an individual in her own right, as more than a mother, as someone who can accept life in its entirety, to see the blessings in the rainshowers
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I love this project! I've actually kept up this year because i'm uploading and editing the same day so I can post it. And I have found it sooo interesting looking a everyone's "everyday" from all over the world. It's like taking a peek into someone's world around them (and they can be across the world from where I am). So interesting!
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I would so love some "me" time! The most I can get right now is 2-3 hours and I spend it working :)
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I've often wanted to scrapbook more publicly for the "single, childless" people of the world, just to show that there are so many things you can take photos of and scrapbook. Sometimes I get down on it too, like this is stupid, who cares. But then other times I do an interesting exercise, like scrapping about a book I read or something, and then I find those layouts are some of my favorite. Scrapbooking is really self expression, so its ok!
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Documenting this week has been a really different experience for me, too, because usually I document the week I spend with my grandkids in Oregon (which I'm still going to do when I travel there next week). But I decided to try it with my normal routine life with my hubby and stepson. And, yes, I have to 'think' harder to come up with something because our life seems so predictable. My husband works long hours (up at 4 a.m. home at 6:30 p.m.- a lot of it spent commuting on the So Cal freeways.) So, he's not home to photograph much. I work - pretty much the only person in my office on most days. So, yeh -it's been challenging, but I'm glad I'm doing a Week in OUR life. It's interesting - although it's also proof that I seriously need to clean and redecorate my house :)
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Welcome to my world Ali. My kids have grown up and I have no family here but I rattle my brain at night while I am in bed and have come up with some ideas for taking photos. This may gross you out but I have 3 dogs and someone has to go in the garden at clean the poop up and I do that twice a day and it made a great pic. Its what I do.
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[…] can check out other Week In the Life entries over at Ali Edwards’ blog – so glad she issues this challenge each year. Fun to take a closer look at the […]
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[…] Be sure to follow along this week on Instagram as I continue to share my Week in the Life with you. I’m shooting for a daily post as well, but do keep in mind that life happens. If you’re interested in seeing what other’s Week In the Life looked like on Thursday, check out the link party that Ali is hosting! […]
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lovely to see a photo of your garden again Ali...haven't seen it for some time. I have no kids at home these days so my garden often comes into my scrapping!
I haven't been spending nearly enough time out there!
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